With Jake Guentzel hurt, 'terrible' Kasperi Kapanen gets a chance on Penguins' top line

Kasperi Kapanen didn’t like the question one bit.

But he was honest — and probably accurate — in answering it.

Following practice in Cranberry on Wednesday, he was asked how he would rate his performance in the past handful of games considering he’s been up and down the lineup recently.

He offered two words in reply.

“Terrible. … Thanks.”

The Penguins’ mercurial winger has gone four games without a point. And over that span, he was moved from the team’s second line to the third line.

Yet, he found himself on the right wing of the team’s top line during Wednesday’s practice session.

With All-Star Jake Guentzel sidelined on a week-to-week basis because of an undisclosed injury, the malleable Evan Rodrigues — who has been filling in for the steady Bryan Rust as of late — was flipped from the right wing to the left wing on that line, and Kapanen was stationed on the starboard side of franchise center Sidney Crosby.

“Those are pretty big shoes to fill, obviously,” Kapanen said to a question he found more appetizing. “Jake’s been one of our best players, if not our best player, for a long period now. Just use my speed, try to get open, try to get Sid and (Rodrigues) the puck because they’ve been playing good hockey lately.”

Crosby is in the midst of a season-best six-game scoring streak, and Rodrigues is the team’s second-leading scorer — Guentzel is first — with 18 points (eight goals, 10 assists) in 25 games.

As for Kapanen, he’s been inconsistent at best. In 25 games, he has 14 points (five goals, nine assists).

When he generates offense, he looks like a player the Penguins envisioned when they selected him in the first round (No. 22 overall) of the 2014 draft.

When he doesn’t, he’s often blunt in his self-critiques.

“We’re just trying to help (Kapanen) in the aspects of the game where we think he should be trying to play to his strengths,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “My advice to a player is always — when players go through struggles — is to simplify his game. Use his speed, shoot the puck, go to the net, take some of the thinking out of it. His game will evolve from there.

“If (Kapanen) simplifies his game, he’s a very valuable player for us. He’s a very talented guy. He’s had games where he’s played extremely well for us. We just need a little bit more consistency.”

After dealing him to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2015 as part of a multi-player trade that brought forward Phil Kessel to Pittsburgh, the Penguins reacquired Kapanen from Toronto in a 2020 deal with the hopes of planting him alongside Crosby.

Those grand designs largely never took hold last season for a variety of reasons, one being that Kapanen found significantly more chemistry skating alongside the team’s other franchise center, Evgeni Malkin.

With Malkin, Guentzel and Rust sidelined by a variety of maladies, the Penguins have few other options than to team Kapanen with Crosby.

“His speed could be really advantageous for Sid and his linemates,” Sullivan said. “He has finishing ability. If he plays with Sid and (Rodrigues), for example, both of those guys have the ability to get him the puck. … And he has good size and strength to play the down-low game. That’s the area where we really try to focus on helping (Kapanen) develop that aspect of his game.”

“Stopping on pucks and engaging in the traffic and staying close in the battle areas where you have the opportunity to play that give-and-go game down low where Sid, Jake, (Rodrigues), these guys, they thrive in that area of the rink. That’s an aspect (of Kapanen’s) game where we’re trying to help him improve and get better at.”

“He certainly has all the attributes to be good in that aspect of the game. He’s big, he’s strong, he can skate, he can protect pucks, and he’s brave. He’s not afraid to go to the traffic areas. It’s just a matter I think of breaking some habits. He tends to want to play in constant motion. Sometimes, you’ve got to stop on a puck. Sometimes, you don’t go away from the traffic, you’ve got to go into it in order to maintain puck possession or things of that nature. There’s opportunity in the traffic. You can create lots of chances if you can win pucks and create some separation out of it.”

Kapanen professes to be ready to answer the challenge.

“The opportunity presents when guys aren’t in the lineup like (Rust) and Jake,” Kapanen said. “That’s unfortunate. We want them to play. I’ve just got to step up in my game.”